Scholars of the American Civil War have all but ignored the fact that northern governors believed that federalism and consequently states’ rights did not die with secession. The political struggle to maintain some sense of governmental cohesion between nation and state persisted in the North throughout the war as these distinct and independent states were pressured to form a more unified nation. Americans had for decades empowered the states as guardians of liberty against the federal government, and as citizens volunteered through their states they remained committed to protecting these individual rights by fighting to preserve a Union that afforded them those liberties.

Certainly, less visible than battlefield contests, this struggle was no less important because American government, both state and federal, had never before been under such strain to endure.” So begins the story of that struggle as recounted by History Professor Stephen Engle, of Florida Atlantic University.